Important leftovers

My friend Kia says the way to get people to eat leftovers is to make them look "important."

Faced with a chunk of leftover roast beef, I decided to give it a bit of a status update as a posh beef salad.

First: sliced the beef as thinly as possible, then into ribbons about half-inch wide. Marinated them in a splash of sesame oil, a few glugs of teriyaki sauce, some crushed garlic, a dab of leftover toum from the other night, and a half-teaspoon of pureed ginger. And a few teaspoons of sugar, because it seemed like a good idea. (It was).

Next: Chopped up a butternut squash into cubes and roasted it in the hot oven with a teaspoon of coconut oil plus a few grinds of salt and pepper. When this was done, I added a blob of butter and a splash of balsamic vinegar, and stirred it around a bit until I realized it was time to take the kid to tennis class.

When we got home from the rec centre: Toasted a pan full of sunflower seeds and sprinkled them with this great new South African seasoning blend I'll have to rave about soon.

Assembled salad: Mesclun greens, decorated with warm squash chunks, marinated beef ribbons and toasted sunflower seeds. Dressed with Kraft Asian Sesame dressing, which was in the fridge.

Yummm. That beef had never felt so important.